


Inversion

by DuchessDeeDee



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Inversion, Angst, Anxiety, Azul, Blue Spirit AU, Inversion, No Scar, Plot, Water Nation attacks first, Zuko gets stuck in an inverse universe, Zula - Freeform, inverse universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 22:02:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17434313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DuchessDeeDee/pseuds/DuchessDeeDee
Summary: Zuko woke up feeling rather disoriented. Usually, he woke up to a servant, or rather employee, as Zuko had taken to changing things around the royal palace after becoming Firelord, knocking on his door to make sure he got up on time. Today, his body woke up on its own, which felt rather unnatural and forced, as if by habit.The next thing he noticed was the acute lack of a scar on his face.





	Inversion

 

The Blue Spirit was pleased with his human. 

 

The other spirits had tried to deter him when he had first chosen the angry, scar-faced child who spat fire and left destruction in his wake, but the Blue Spirit was not to be dissuaded. He had felt the potential, felt the connection the moment the child had tried to tap into his powers. Of course, it hadn’t been intentional. Spiritual connections rarely were, but Zuko had hardly seemed to notice when he began his quest to free the Avatar. It was a stark contrast from his usual actions, and the Blue Spirit had been absolutely delighted to help Zuko stray from Fate. 

 

Pah. The manipulative little beast. 

 

Fate tried to control Zuko, restricted his movements and his person and attempts at freedom at every turn, but with the Blue Spirit on his side, Zuko easily broke the constraints. The whispering voices, the constrictive embrace of the blue dragon were dismissed, and for all the good that had done, that had been the start of Zuko’s troubles. For so long Fate had tried to mold him into the villain of their ever-growing plot, but Zuko had been born with a good heart. Not the Blue Spirit’s usual pick, but even Fate could see Zuko was meant for greater things-not a second rate villain with daddy issues. 

 

Well, he still had daddy issues, but the Blue Spirit couldn’t blame him. Ozai was destined to be evil, Fate’s strings or not. 

 

Either way, Zuko had broken free and was allowed the option of  _ choice _ . One he hadn’t had before and had difficulty dealing with. At first, he had consistently made the wrong one, and it had taken  _ years _ of the Blue Spirits patience and painfully small nudges in the right direction before he had figured out he could make his own decisions. So much time wasted, but worth it.

 

The other one, though. 

 

The Blue Spirit frowned, glancing down into one of the silver spheres floating in his small stone house, hewed from the side of a mountain. The other Zuko, prince Zuko, wasn’t the least bit susceptible to his touch, absolutely strangled by Fate’s strings in the Inversion. He supposed Fate wasn’t taking any chances with this one. Unfortunately, where that Zuko currently stood led to pain and suffering and the End. 

 

He sighed, floating on his back. As one of the most powerful and eldest spirits in the Spirit World, the Blue Spirit was tasked with, ahem, managing fate. Not the spirit, but the path. The future was unwaveringly clear in this instance and the Blue Spirit had no influence. The solution was also as obvious, but he was reluctant to play his hand, should it be the wrong one. Of course, he would have to do something. Yin and Yang were getting more anxious as time went on, and he knew it was only a matter of when rather than how they would again meet their end. And they were but a small casualty should he let this continue to play out.

 

Sighing, he whistled, letting the red dragon curl around his shoulders. The blue dragon was no doubt slithering in the shadows with Fate, thankfully at the other side of the Spirit World. Petting the purring beast’s head, the Blue Spirit pulled a small jar of golden liquid from a shelf, the other gently pulling off his mask. Red crooned, grabbing the mask between her maw and weaving over the silver sphere next to the Inverse. Zuko, the Firelord, not the prince, was sleeping peacefully, and contentment hummed from that world. 

 

He really hated to do this, the Blue Spirit thought as he let fall a single golden drop on Zuko’s forehead. This Zuko had changed the tide of the war and saved countless lives, not only as the Blue Spirit but as Zuko, exiled prince of the Fire Nation. And in his future, he would accomplish many more great feats. But.

 

Inverse Zuko was getting to the age where he would set the Inverse down the path of no return. The balance was tipping, and not in the right direction. Fate didn’t care, didn’t understand, had never understood that everything was connected. If the Inverse went down, so did the Spirit World and the other countless Earth’s connected to it. 

Gently, the Blue Spirit guided the Firelord’s soul out of his own sleeping form, smiling at the golden color that flickered from his body. A true firebender. Nodding at Red, he laid Zuko’s glowing form into the prone form of his Inverse, letting the power usually stemmed by his mask flow free. The prince’s body glowed blue and gold as Zuko’s soul joined the new body, the lifeline between Zuko’s body and the new Inverse where he now resided were barely connected by a golden string that strained across the two Earth’s. Red dropped his mask in his hand, and the Blue Spirit tied it back in place, eyeing the string.

 

Finally, he turned to Red. The dragon howled sorrowfully, but let loose a stream of colorful flames that engulfed the string, snapping it. Dragon Fire ran free, sealing the connection between the Earth and the Inverse. 

 

In the brief silence that followed, the Blue Spirit watched as Zuko’s body began to still. The silver sphere dulled, now that its anchor was gone. Time froze. 

 

“I will return you, young firebender,” the Blue Spirit finally said, “once your duty is finished.”

 

The Inverse stirred, quivering with new life at the arrival of a new anchor. Time stopped and started a few times, confused, before setting a new path interwoven with destiny and the Blue Spirits touch. Fate’s strings snapped, leaving Zuko’s new body entirely under his control. 

 

The Blue Spirit smiled dryly. If a Spirit War were to break out, now would be about the time. 

  
  
  


 

Zuko woke up feeling rather disoriented. Usually, he woke up to a servant, or rather employee, as Zuko had taken to changing things around the royal palace after becoming Firelord, knocking on his door to make sure he got up on time. Today, his body woke up on its own, which felt rather unnatural and forced, as if by habit. 

 

The next thing he noticed was the acute  _ lack of a scar on his face.  _

 

He quickly rolled off the bed, crouching behind the red curtains cautiously. The room still  _ looked _ the same. The one he’d always had since he was little, the double windows, the futon in the corner. That ruled out capture, unless his captors had really felt the need to recreate Zuko’s room down to the last detail. The only thing out of place was the feeling of cleanness. It was too clean-every cushion was perfectly in place, the chair pushed into the vanity exactly in the center. It felt unlived in-it felt like Azula’s room.

 

Shaking his head to dispel unfortunate memories, he paused, puffing a tuft of hair out of his eyes. It was longer than it had been, the undone edge tickling his neck. So unless he’d miraculously sprouted four inches of hair overnight...

 

He glanced down at his body. Too perfect, too-too small. Whirling around, he gaped at himself at the mirror, or more accurately, his younger self. His face was softer, and he was a good foot shorter. Around 13, if he were to guess. That meant he hadn’t had the Agni Kai with his father yet. That meant Aang was still under ice, his father was still Firelord, and the war was still happening. That meant he was back in the past. 

 

That was impossible.

 

Trembling, his hand brushed his unmarred cheek, marveling at the soft, unblemished skin. Not even Katara had been able to heal the damage, once she’d had a go at it. Golden eyes gazed back at golden eyes in horror. 

 

The palace servants stopped their duties and openly stared as Zuko sprinted by, hastily tied robe flying behind him as his bare feet pounded on the tiled floor. He paid them no mind, set on finding the only person he knew he could trust. 

 

“Uncle!” Zuko shouted, sliding into the room his Uncle had always resided in. The man in question looked up from his Pai Sho game with a frown, an eyebrow raising as he took in the Prince’s undone hair and pajamas. 

 

“Prince Azul, what can I do for you?” Iroh asked carefully, placing the lotus tile he had been about to put away onto the table. 

 

Zuko stopped from where he had been retying his over robe, taking a leaf out of Sokka’s book and gaping at the man. Prince Azul? But his name wasn’t-Azula was-

 

Shaking his head, Zuko dismissed it. Wherever he was, it certainly wasn’t the past. That meant there had to be some differences. He just hoped his Uncle was still the same. 

 

“Uncle, I don’t know what happened. One minute I was asleep, and the next I wasn’t-wasn’t.”

 

He paused, watching as Iroh sat stiffly with a slight frown. So they weren’t close here. But what did that mean?

 

He certainly looked much better than he had at this point in Zuko’s past. Around this time he was still grieving for Lu Ten’s death and had let himself fall apart. Now he looked to be in the peak of fitness and his kindly expression was nowhere to be found. The ever present portrait of his son, while still there, was not on the altar it had been, merely hung up on the wall. Was Iroh still a General? Did he work with his father? If he was, anything Zuko said would end up reported back to his father. His eye began to twitch. This was too political for him.

 

Making up his mind, Zuko bowed respectfully, firmly setting his face in an indifferent expression. “It’s nothing, sorry for bothering you, General Iroh. I’ll take my leave now.”

 

And with that, he strode out of the room, weary of his Uncle’s curious eyes. If his Uncle wasn’t the same, then who else was different?

 

For that matter, where was here? Pausing, Zuko casually bent over to fix his sandal, and rolled out of sight behind the pillar. He knew well how the Fire palace security worked. 

 

Using the skills from his Blue Spirit days that had never really gone away, Zuko snuck through the palace towards the library. The Royal library held archives of anything and everything. If there was something that could tell him at least who he was, much less where he was, it was there. 

 

Towers of books spiraled around the edges of the room, winding around corners and boarding a singular window. Zuko cautiously slipped inside, keeping a wary eye out for the librarian. The ‘nonsense’ books, as his father had liked to call them, were shoved in the top shelf in the opposite corner, filled with bland history of the other nations. 

 

It took several trips to move the books he wanted into a hidden nook he had once found in his younger days and Zuko made camp, pouring over the books. 

 

There was no way he had gone back in time. The history was too different-the water nation had attacked first, something about Fire Nation spies. The other Nation’s had followed suit and yet the Air Nation was still wiped out. The Fire Nation in their fury had subdued the other Nations and begun their conquest. 

 

The Fire Nation books on the royal family, however, were much the same. Save for Zuko-that he had found, anyways. His name was apparently Azul and it seemed like everyone thought he was Azula reincarnated. Speaking of Azula, he couldn’t find his sister in any of the books. It was disturbing to say the least.

 

All the books carefully placed back on the bookshelf Zuko sneaks back out, over the rooftops, and drops onto the pathway. The way back to his room is empty.

 

Every noble that so much as glanced at him skittered away, averting eye contact. Zuko felt a bit like a lion in a den of sheep.

 

As he was lost in thought, Zuko failed to notice the servant rushing around the corner, a pile of towels gathered in her arms.  The two collided with a series of yelps, the towels flying everywhere. “I’m so sorry,” she hurried out, not looking up as she quickly gathered the towels into her large basket. Zuko grabbed several near him, handing them to her as he got to his knees. 

 

“I wasn’t watching where I was going, and-” she gasped as she looked up, scrambling back several feet as she caught sight of Zuko. “P-Prince Azul!” 

 

He blinked as she threw herself down on the ground, bowing with her forehead touching the ground. “Pl-please forgive me, my Prince! It’s all my fault.”

 

“It’s nothing,” he said absently, noting the way she quivered fearfully with a tinge of horror. “The fault was mine, I should have been more careful.”

 

As she continued to lay there, he frowned, feeling rather awkward. “Uh, you can get up now.”

 

The girl practically shot to her feet, the towels flying into the basket as she hurriedly rushed about. Giving Zuko one last bow, she hightailed it out of there, leaving said boy staring after her.

 

Who, exactly, was he here?

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting in my docs for like a year. I figured it was time you guys got to enjoy it


End file.
